Category Archives: Hahira

Hahira Honeybee Festival 8 October 2011

Hahira’s biggest event of the year, the Hahira Honeybee Festival, filled up Main Street from the Middle School to Branch Street. Last year reputedly drew 25,000 people; I’m no expert, but I’ll be surprised if there weren’t at least as many this year.

Here are pictures in a slideshow and videos in a playlist.

No local parade is complete without the Georgia Bridgemen Lowndes High School band marching.

You can tell by all the City Council candidates that there’s an election going on. See if you can spot the mayor. (I didn’t, until I was revewing the pictures.) My favorite is this one of Charles Henry Hobrat.


Hahira Honeybee Festival, Hahira, Lowndes County, Georgia, 8 October 2011.
Pictures and Videos by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

-jsq

Hahira Honeybee festival

The bees buzz in Hahira again this year. I went to the breakfast Monday at O-dark-thirty. Other events have already happened, but these are going on today:
Saturday Oct. 9th – 8 am until 6pm Arts & Crafts and Food Concessions. All day we will have events like The 5k Run, Century Bike Ride, Dog Show, Cloggers and other entertainment. There will also be a Kid’s Zone with lots of inflatables, a train ride, live pony rides, mountain climb and carousel.

Parade start time is 12:00 Noon. This is one of the largest parades in South Georgia. We have one of the largest high school bands in Georgia from Lowndes High School, The Georgia Bridgmen, Floats Of All kinds, Local Queens, City Officials, Our Senior Citizen, State Officials, and Lots and lots of Shriners and much more.

-jsq

Consolidation was about economic development —Fred Wetherington @ LCBOE 4 Oct 2011

Current LCBOE member Fred Wetherington said he was on the Chamber of Commerce Board and is still a member. Remembering how consolidation started at the Chamber:
The whole idea was could it help us with economic development in our community. At the same time could we increase student achievement. And could we save the taxpayers money.

Well, I’m here to tell you tonight that I was one of the board members… that if that theory and those ideas had held up after research and study, I would be supporting this idea.

But he doesn’t. Because that theory and those ideas did not hold up.

He might have settled for something less than that: Continue reading →

Hahira City Council tonight

Tonight, 7:30 PM at the Hahira Courthouse, is the regular meeting of the Hahira City Council.

Rumor has it they had a, uh, polite discussion about waste disposal at their work session Monday and they will make some sort of decision about that tonight.

I would post the agenda if it was online, but it’s not. They do have minutes online, but the most recent ones are from April.

-jsq

Solar Lowndes County Commission?

While GSEA is promoting statewide solar businesses and lobbying the state government to do what other states have done to promote solar, local governments and businesses don’t have to wait on the state. For example, the Lowndes County Commission has opened a discussion about solar energy in response to a presentation by Bill Branham. Now that they’ve learned the Lowndes County Commission could lead by making one of their famous position statements, this time in favor of solar, or by putting solar on the roofs of their buildings (solar on the jail! imagine that), bringing in money to do so by or by applying for grants, or by making a project big enough to apply for private venture capital from the at least two firms that are looking for such projects.

If the LCC won’t do it, how about solar Valdosta fire departments, or solar Hahira tobacco barns?

-jsq

Flattery! —John S. Quarterman @ LCC 13 September 2011

The VDT picked up that I referred to Ashley Paulk’s personal attention of the day before as flattery. Sorry, elected officials who can’t even get recognized by the Chairman: bring a camera next time; then he’ll notice you!

First I pointed out that the Mayor of Hahira was in the room. The Chairman had recognized the new Mayor of Valdosta, his replacement on the Valdosta City Council, and the Chair of the Lake Park Chamber of Commerce, but not the Mayor of Hahira. I didn’t want anyone to think the County Commission doesn’t care about Hahira!

Then I commended the voting Commissioners for their comments Continue reading →

Lowndes County: commuter rail hub

Look at all those other railroads converging on Valdosta in that GFRR project proposal map. Valdosta is a historical rail hub for passenger traffic to Atlanta, Savannah, Jacksonville, Orlando, Thomasville, Tallahasssee, and beyond. All the tracks are still in place and still in use for freight. With some rolling stock and a few deals with the railroads, Valdosta and Lowndes County could become again a passenger rail hub with a mass transit system for local commuting to jobs and for long distance travel.

Add a bus system and local commuting becomes very practical. People could take the train to town and catch a bus to work. Many people could walk or take a bicycle to their work from the train station. This could work the other way around, too. People could live in Valdosta and work in Ray City or Lakeland or Hahira or Lake Park or Clyattville and not have to drive to get there. That would save a lot of wasted time and wasted fuel.

This kind of mass transit would attract the knowledge-based workers we supposedly want around here. Including jobs our high school and college graduates could take, so they wouldn’t have to move elsewhere.

And upgrading the railroads, building stations, building and refurbishing houses and apartments near the stations, etc., would employ a lot of construction workers; probably as many as road projects and sprawling subdivision projects, but without the sprawl.

-jsq

Qualifying is finished: here’s the list

A few people qualified on the last day. They’re marked ! below, in this latest information from Deb Cox, Lowndes County Supervisor of Elections; * indicates incumbent.

-jsq

Valdosta

Mayor Brooks D. Bivins !
John Gayle
Gary Minchew
At Large Matt Flumerfelt
Ben Norton *
Council 1 James R. Wright *
Council 3 Joseph Sonny Vickers *
Council 5 Tim Carroll*

Hahira

Council 2 Bruce Cain *
Council 3 Ralph Clendenin *
Sherry Parham Brown

Dasher

Post 2
special election		 Donald J. Bryan
James (Jim) Dew !
Becky Rogers
(was held by Rodney Lieupo)
Post 3 Albert Hall !
Edwin R. Smith *
Post 4 Anita Armstrong *

Lake Park

Walker Keith Sandlin *
Mayor
City Council At Large (Vote for 4) Eric Schindler *
Ronald Carter *
Paul Mulkey *
Cathi Brown !
Russell Lane !
Sandy Sherrill !
Special election
voting now 		Cathy Brown
Sandy Sherrill
Whoever wins will also have to run again in November.

Remerton

Mayor Cornelius Holsendolph *!
City Council At Large (Vote for 5) Alexander Abell !
Sam P. Flemming, Jr. !
Steven Koffler !
Jasen L. Tatum *
Bill Wetherington *

Valdosta Board of Education

District 4 Dean R. Rexroth *
District 5 Julian Carol Sherwood III *
District 6 Bill Love *

Qualifying is finished: here’s the list

A few people qualified on the last day. They’re marked ! below, in this latest information from Deb Cox, Lowndes County Supervisor of Elections; * indicates incumbent.

-jsq

Valdosta

Mayor Brooks D. Bivins !
John Gayle
Gary Minchew
At Large Matt Flumerfelt
Ben Norton *
Council 1 James R. Wright *
Council 3 Joseph Sonny Vickers *
Council 5 Tim Carroll*

Hahira

Council 2 Bruce Cain *
Council 3 Ralph Clendenin *
Sherry Parham Brown

Dasher

Post 2
special election		 Donald J. Bryan
James (Jim) Dew !
Becky Rogers
(was held by Rodney Lieupo)
Post 3 Albert Hall !
Edwin R. Smith *
Post 4 Anita Armstrong *

Lake Park

Walker Keith Sandlin *
Mayor
City Council At Large (Vote for 4) Eric Schindler *
Ronald Carter *
Paul Mulkey *
Cathi Brown !
Russell Lane !
Sandy Sherrill !
Special election
voting now 		Cathy Brown
Sandy Sherrill
Whoever wins will also have to run again in November.

Remerton

Mayor Cornelius Holsendolph *!
City Council At Large (Vote for 5) Alexander Abell !
Sam P. Flemming, Jr. !
Steven Koffler !
Jasen L. Tatum *
Bill Wetherington *

Valdosta Board of Education

District 4 Dean R. Rexroth *
District 5 Julian Carol Sherwood III *
District 6 Bill Love *

SGMC absorbs Smith Northview Hospital

What could that $55 million or that $100 million have been used for that would have improved medical care around here?

Kay Harris wrote for the VDT yesterday, SGMC acquisition of Smith Northview official:

Beginning today, Smith Northview is an official campus of South Georgia Medical Center.

Officials from the Hospital Authority of Valdosta-Lowndes County and Ameris Health Systems gathered Wednesday at SGMC to sign the paperwork together to finalize the sale.

SGMC purchased Smith Northview for $55 million, with no assumption of debt. Hospital Authority Attorney Walter H. New said the purchase was financed through an 18-month bridge loan, which is anticipated to be paid in full in December when SGMC is expected to have a $100 million bond issue to pay for current and future projects on the main hospital campus.

Interim CEO for Smith Northview, Shamb Purohit, said, “This is a wonderful moment and we need to celebrate it.”

Yeah, well, he’s paid to say that. I say it’s a sad day. First Smith Hospital moved from Hahira Continue reading →